My name is Jim Larson. I am organizing a Wake the World event for Illinois. This will be the first of what we hope will become an annual event. The goal of this event is to show the children an active fun filled day on the water; learn new skills, teamwork and communication while having a great time. During the day the children will be able to wakeboard, ski, kneeboard, tube and much more.

The Wake the World organization was started in North Carolina several years ago and has grown to 9 events in 7 states last year, with several more planned for 2012. We are a 100% volunteer based organization. You can see a video about Wake the World below:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXs5zTQYBc0
Here is the website for the North Carolina event. As we are the newest branch, we do not yet have a website of our own but we will be working on it soon.http://waketheworldnc.com/

If you are interested in this event, please contact me here and I can put you on my email list.

Below are some details about the event

Announcements:

I'm excited to let you know that we have scheduled our first Wake the World Illinois event for August 7th with The Rice Child and Family Center based in Evanston, IL. The Rice Child and Family Center focuses on children with a history of violence and abuse. This organization provides a group home and intensive care for children that have had troubled upbringing. These are the children that need positive events like Wake the World the most. It will do worlds of help seeing the positive people boat owners are, learning and accomplishing a new skill, and experiencing a great day outside of their norm. The staff I spoke with about this event seemed very excited that a group like ours would step up and provide a valuable event like this.

I have also been scouting locations to base the event. It looks like the best location would be the Chain-O-Lakes State Park in Spring Grove, IL. There is a free 4 port boat launch, tables, water fountains, grills, toilets, volleyball, plenty of open space and more . For those of you that want to make a long weekend out of this event, there is even a full service camp ground (please note that weekend boating on the Chain is very busy).

Details:

The Rice Center provides for 45-50 Children and expect to have about 40 Children actually available for this event. The Rice center will be sending 1 staff member for each 3 children to help for the day. We should shoot for committing at least 14 boats to this event (I think we currently have interest from 8 boat owners). Each boat will include the driver and whomever you would like to bring along and 4 more occupants (1 staff member and 3 children). I expect the total number of people at the event will be about 80 (children, Staff, Drivers and any extra volunteers).

The Event day details will be ironed out over the next few months but here are a few things to expect:
We will be grilling Lunch and Dinner at the state park (vegetarian meals will be provided if needed).
If enough money is raised, we will be having an ice cream snack at Blarney Island.
Boat on any lake you choose on the Chain.
Other details to come.

What you need to do:

The first thing you will need to do is check your schedule and decide if you can commit to August 7th. If you are ready to commit, please email me and I will mark you down as a driver.
Please send the following information:
1. Name of the main driver (will need to take online safety course)..
2. Name of any other passengers that will be with you and indicate if they might drive (will need to take online safety course).
3. Year, Make and Model and color of boat (a picture of the boat if you have one so we can get the kids excited).
4. Number of USCG occupancy of your boat.
5. Any special notes you wish to share.

Due to insurance requirements each person that might need to drive the day of the event needs to complete the NASBLA safety course. That means if the you are driving and also want to wake-board you will need another driver with you that has taken the course. The free course can be found here.http://www.boatus.org/onlinecourse/default.asp

Boat Owner Responsibilities:

We thank all boat owners for the donation of their time, boat, fuel and effort! This event couldn't happen without you. As a boat volunteer you will need have your boat full of fuel, gear (vests, boards, and ropes) and be in the water and ready 15 minutes prior to the event start time. You and your crew will need to show/explain how to ski/wake-board. You are welcome to demonstrate as long as there is another driver available.

Other thoughts:

I will start fundraising soon and could use help. We will need some decent ideas and people to implement them. Greg (the founder of WTW) has sent me information on a Chili's give back program. I will try this in my area and I encourage you to do the same. I will send details on this in future emails. All funds raised will be used directly for the kids. It will pay for food, permits, and anything else we give to the kids (possibly t-shirts).

Thank you so much for showing interest in this event. I'm sure everyone will have a great time!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Thanks, and I hope to see you on the water!

Jim Larson

Contact me here and I can put you on my email list if you are interested

Hey Jim. I would love to help out with this event. I have a 2000 Super Air Nautique, USCG label says it seats 9. I would definitely bring my 8 year old daughter with me, and possibly my wife or another adult. I have plenty of gear in various sizes that I can bring if you give me an approximate age range of the children that will be participating. You can add me to the email list and fill me in on the details as they become available.

Chris and Jim - send me your emails and I can put you on the list. I don't send out notes very often, but that's the best way to make sure you stay informed in case I don't update this thread much. We're more than happy for any help you'd like to volunteer for.

I just wanted to take a minute to thank Jim for putting this event together. I was honored to have two of the kids (10 &11 year old boys) from the Rice Center on my boat. They both enjoyed swimming at the sandbar and tubing, but were apprehensive about trying to board. I found it hilarious how the macho male ego took over after watching my 8 year old daughter wake board. They were not going to be shown up by a little girl, and both were determined that they could do it as well - and the 10 year old actually did make it up on the boom for a bit!

They say the best two days of a boat owners life are the day he buys it and the day he sells it. After spending yesterday with all of the other great boat owners and the kids from the center I could not disagree with it more. There is so much in life that we take for granted that sometimes we forget just how lucky and blessed we are. Seeing the joy in the kids faces and knowing how much this meant to them made this the best day of my boat owning life. I hope this event does become an annual one for our area as this will be something on my calendar for the rest of my boat owning career.